1,700 a day in hospital for obesity

20% rise in admissions for weight

MANCHESTER City’s team bus is pelted with missiles on its way to last night’s Champions League match against Liverpool at Anfield.

The coach was damaged as yobs hurled beer cans and flares near the ground but no one was injured.

Liverpool issued a statement “condemning the scenes in the strongest possible terms”. RED MIST Liverpool fans with flares by Anfield

HOSPITAL admissions due to obesity have risen nearly a fifth in just a year, to almost 1,700 a day.

Obesity was a factor in 617,000 admissions in England in 2016/17, NHS Digital data shows. That is an 18% rise on 525,725 the year before.

Two-thirds of those were women, found the report, called the Statistics On Obesity, Physical Activity And Diet. It found that obesity is more common in the north of England and the Midlands than in the South.

More than 4,000 of the admissions were for children under 16. More than one in four kids in the most deprived areas were obese, compared with one in 10 in the wealthiest regions. The numbers having weight-loss surgery also rose to 6,760, up from 6,438. The report comes as a tax on sugary drinks starts tomorrow. Caroline Cerny, of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “When it comes to obesity, there is no one silver bullet. “This tax certainly will help, but it needs to work with lots of other measures, in particular tackling junk food marketing.” Shadow Health Secretary, Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, said: “The Government are failing our children with a watered-down obesity strategy, alongside severe cuts to public health.” Number of obese kids in deprived areas, versus 11% in richest regions